Hollywood New Century

Hollywood is silent about the arrival of 2007. After the North American box office market experienced a low ebb in 2005, it has recovered in 2006. For 2005, there was a 4.2% increase, and the annual box office reached 9.2 billion US dollars. The market is definitely more prosperous!

In Beverly Hills, Simon hosted Nancy Davis, the administrator of his Nine-Headed Bird Fund, at his home.

"Twitter angel round, valued at $5 million, we invested $1 million, accounting for 20% of the shares," Nancy Davis reported on the investment:

"However, they refused to sign an exclusive investment agreement with us, and subsequent financing will definitely bring in more investors!"

Simon nodded and said, "It doesn't matter, an exclusive investment agreement is difficult. The more investors there are, the more dispersed the equity will be, which will help them control the company!"

Simon remembers that the future Whatsapp was exclusively invested by Sequoia Capital, and was later acquired by Facebook for more than $20 billion.

"In the future, when Twitter continues to raise funds, let's take the lead and guarantee at least 20% of the shares of Nine-headed Bird in Twitter. As for the future voting rights, some of the voting rights can be given to the management of the founding team," Simon didn't care about Twitter. In operation, all you need is shares, otherwise the second, third and fourth rounds of financing will dilute your shares again and again.

"Understood, and we have been buying shares of Apple recently, and there are certain investment prospects according to analysis!" Nancy Davis continued.

"That's good, don't worry, Apple's mobile phone conference will be held soon, and some will go up in the first half of this year," Simon nodded. If he has not held the stock for more than a year, the transaction tax will be a bit high, otherwise he just needs to pay Capital gains tax just fine!

"Simon, you seem to be very interested in technology venture capital. Should you set up an office in San Francisco's Silicon Valley and receive any news as soon as possible," Nancy Davis suggested.

"Yes, it can be implemented, and I also need first-hand information on many innovative companies," Simon absolutely agreed, and then said:

"Nancy, are you interested in setting up another private equity investment fund? I still have some connections in Hollywood, and many celebrities are also very rich!"

Nancy Davis' eyes lit up, if it was proposed by Simon Pike, it would be different, and he did not have his connections.

"That's ok, you know, I've been in this business before, but the customer aspect is not my strong suit!" How could Nancy Davis disagree, she agreed too much.

"Well, you can convene people to set up a private equity fund as soon as possible," Simon said after thinking for a while, then said:

"I also thought of the name, it's called the Phoenix Foundation!"

"I know that the phoenix is ​​also a kind of mythical bird in China!" Nancy Davis said with a smile, her boss likes Chinese myths and stories, and of course he knows about it.

Simon looked at Nancy and smiled: "Yes, the divine bird that China worships is like a Chinese dragon!"

"By the way, Nancy, you pay attention to Elon Musk, I am also very interested in this person," Simon didn't want to miss the Tesla project.

"Elon Musk, who was one of the founders of PayPal, an online payment tool, was acquired by eBay. In 2002, he founded SpaceX, a space exploration technology company, and in 2004, he invested in Tesla, an electric car company. He also became chairman, and in 2006 he and his cousin founded Suncity, a photovoltaic power generation company," Nancy Davis seemed familiar with this person.

"Oh, so clear?" Simon smiled.

"Solar City has just been established, and it definitely needs investment. As for SpaceX and Tesla, the next time they raise funds, the Nine-headed Bird Fund can follow up!"

Simon knew that Tesla didn't buy Suncity later, the energy car Tesla is worth investing in. But SpaceX doesn't seem to be raising money until many years into the future.

Nancy Davis nodded and explained: "I participated in Elon Musk's financing for Tesla before, and he himself is very optimistic about Tesla's development!"

"That's good. Elon Musk's main funds have been invested in his space exploration technology company SpaceX. There shouldn't be much funds on Tesla's side. We will enter the next financing!" Tesla There are a lot of problems now, gearboxes, batteries, and R&D costs. Soon the founders of the company will leave, and Elon Musk will also be investing everywhere.

Nancy Davis thought of something and reminded: "Elon Musk's sister, Tosca Musk, founded Musk Entertainment in 2001, and you can be considered someone from Hollywood!"

Simon nodded, of course he didn't know his sister, but their family was very powerful.

As for the film industry, anyone can participate as long as they have an idea. Musk's family is not short of money, and it is very simple for his sister to be an independent filmmaker.

Anyway, it was only Elon Musk who invested, and the others didn't bother to worry about it. Besides, the people in their family were also very low-profile. It is estimated that his mother was the best-looking when she was young.

"Follow Tesla, invest in Suncity, and I want you to pay attention to the stock price of DVD rental company Netflix for me," Simon leaned back in his chair.

"Netflix is ​​the company most related to my career. Although Netflix is ​​now the largest DVD rental company, its stock price fluctuates a lot, so keep an eye on it!"

The high-definition Blu-ray-DVD and HD-DVD battle has entered a fever pitch, and content producers have also completed their lineups.

However, the influence of online video and pirated DVDs is also increasing, and the DVD market has a tendency to retreat.

The prosperous decade of the DVD market seems to have come to an end. Opportunities always coexist with crises. When Blu-ray-DVD and HD-DVD finally won the battle, they did not want to be caught by streaming media. overturned.

Nancy Davis nodded. Netflix is ​​a listed company. Paying attention to the stock price can indeed find many problems.

After Nancy Davis left, Simon sat on the sofa and opened a newspaper:

Sony Columbia's North American box office was $1.711 billion last year, accounting for 18.6% of the North American market share, ranking first in the six largest;

Disney ranked second, with a box office of 1.494 billion US dollars, accounting for 16.2%;

20th Century Fox third, $1.398 billion, 15.2% share;

Warner Bros. fourth, $1.066 billion box office, 11.6% share;

Paramount fifth, $947 million, 10.3% share;

Global sixth, $815 million, 8.9% share;

There are four North American box offices that have exceeded 1 billion US dollars, and the share of the films released by the six major players exceeds 80%. Including the independent distribution under their group, it must be more than 90%.

The independent publisher headed by Lionsgate has a long way to go!